They may have brutalized each other in the Octagon, but don’t worry — Paul Felder and Dan Hooker left it all in the cage.
The fighters — who fought against each other in UFC Auckland over the weekend — were significantly bloodied and bruised after their main event battle. There was no reprieve, and the lightweights took the fight all the way to the final buzzer, where Hooker was declared the winner by unanimous decision. The fight was so brutal that both fighters had to miss the subsequent press conference so they could go to the hospital, and it was there that this photo happened:
Felder captioned the photo with a tongue-in-cheek question, “Sooo… Wanna race?” and Hooker shared a similar photo with a bit of wisdom that’s sometimes hard for audiences (and, yes, even some fighters) to remember when there are two tough people beating the crap out of each other on live television: “At the end of the day we are just a couple dads putting bread on the table. #RESPECT“
The concept of fighters being respectful to each other outside of competition is nothing new or groundbreaking, but in an age where trash talk gets you fights and grudge matches draw more views, it’s still refreshing to see two fighters put it all on the line and then remind us all that they’re only human and it’s just a job.
